On Your Own
by RattusLabRat
Summary: This is the third installment of the series. Why is letting Lydia live her life so hard?


**On Your Own**

**Disclaimer:**_ I own nothing.._

**A/N: **_This is the third installment of my yet to be named series. Seriously, i'm in dire need of a name for it, i've asked Llewlyn and she said to go with my instincts, but it's so bloody hard to come up with names. Darnit! If any of you have any ideas as to what to name my series, please...just TELL me! On a lighter not, this is not the last...ahem..i hope. (Ducks from flying fruit and veg) Tis a bit angsty!_

Jade eyes watched from afar, as Lydia sat down with her guest, chatting and laughing. If Beetlejuice still had a beating heart he knew that it'd have stopped several minutes ago. Her hand was patting his leg as he said something mildly amusing to her and the prick she had brought home for the third time that week was lapping up the attention. She'd warned him before hand that she'd met some idiot by the name of Colin? Carlos? Ahh, that was it...Carl, during one of her lectures. He'd rolled his eyes and thought nothing about it until the day she'd blurted that _Carl _was coming over. Yeah, well Carl could bite him. Lydia was his, nobody elses and the fool that sat next to her didn't know what was coming to him.

Blinking, Beetlejuice felt as if he were stalking his prey, waiting for the moment it let it's guard down so he could pounce. He'd promised Lydia that he wouldn't do anything rash, like scare the guy or possess him, little did she know that he had had his fingers crossed the whole time. Like Hell he wasn't gonna scare the chump off.

He watched for another moment or two as the couple got closer. Chumpy whispered something in Lydia's ear that made her smile and that's when Beetlejuice took his cue.

He never was one to do all the cliche stuff that normally happened in horror movies. Mugs getting moved around, the toilet getting flushed repeatedly when no one was even there, but he had the urge to do something so stupid, it'd be funny afterwards, watching the creep running out of Lydia's apartment wetting himself in fear. Beetlejuice had to hold a cackle back the more he thought about it.

Trying to find something in Lydia's apartment that he could shatter without her being too mad was nearly impossible. Everything held a memory too close to Lydia's heart. The photograph of her father giving her a large hug, as Lydia rolled her eyes. The small ornament of a small girl painting, one of the many things her grandmother had left her. The Vase that Delia had made, well...maybe Lydia wouldn't be TOO heartbroken if that were to smash to pieces suddenly. He opted for the light next to Chumpy, Lydia could always buy a new one. It wasn't as if it were a family heirloom..

He waited until the moment was right, where he could smash the light and spook the Chumpster at the same time. When the guy thought he could get closer to Lydia than Beetlejuice would allow, he took his cue. Pointing at the light, it flickered for several seconds, both Lydia and Chumpy watched as the light flickered, died and flew from the side table to smash on the floor. This was where it was gonna get good.

"What the hell was THAT, Lydia?"

Lydia stared on and shook her small head. "I..don't know."

Beetlejuice quietly laughed to himself and flicked his long fingers, the shards of the broken light moving around to form a word. Chumpy stared at the shards for several moments, his mouth hanging open as he repeatedly read the name over and over again.

**Carl**

Yep, that did it. The Chumpster shot up from his seat next to Lydia and tried to form a complete sentence. Too bad, the guy could only form a few broken words before he ran from her apartment muttering about leaving his oven on.

Lydia sat on her sofa dumbstruck. What the hell had just happened there? She looked down to see what had made Carl lose any coherent thought and frowned. His name had been spelled in the shards. Damn that poltergeist!

"BEETLEJUICE!"

Uh, oh. Beetlejuice bit his bottom lip as he slowly faded into view. Lydia's face had turned an awful shade of red, damnit. She was mad. Slamming his hands into the pockets of his stripy suit trousers, he sighed and let his fingers from his left hand rub over an object in his pocket. What the hell was that? Grabbing the object, he turned it in his hand for a few seconds, while all the time trying to figure out a rather good excuse as to why he scared Lydia's supposed boyfriend shitless.

Ahh, squeezing the object, it started to ooze a little into his fingers. It was his silly putty! He'd wondered where that stuff had gotten to, after stealing it from that kid. He had forgotten about it, like most things he aquired from people.

"How could you? How COULD you?"

Beetlejuice looked up and watched as Lydia paced the floor of her sitting room. The black dress she wore making it look as if she were floating in mid air. What was he meant to say anyways? He didn't like the guy, pure and simple. He was full of himself, stuck up and frankly completely and utterly boring, but he didnt want to say that to Lydia, he knew it'd hurt her feelings if he voiced his opinion on her choice of men...but then again, when had he started thinking about how Lydia felt?

"It was only a bit of..-"

"Fun? You call that fun, Beetlejuice? Scaring a grown man into silence, watching him try to not break down and then run screaming from my apartment. Is that what you call _fun_?"

Beetlejuice smirked. "Well..."

Lydia stopped pacing and glared at the obnoxious poltergeist. "I can tell you from personal experience that it is NOT fun. Why can't you grow up? Why can't you leave me the hell alone? Trouble, that's all you are! Juno warned me, the Maitland's warned me..and did i listen? No. Look where it's gotten me...nowadays i can't even write an essay without you bothering me, or badgering me into stopping JUST so you can have some _fun_."

Beetlejuice frowned, she wanted him to go? It was only a little fun, Lydia was taking this to heart. Damn.

"Lydia...i didn't mean -"

Shaking her head her voice came out as nothing but a whisper. "You never mean it Beej...it just somehow always happens. I can't handle this right now, i need to phone Carl and see if he's alright. Just...go."

"But babe!"

"Just go...Beetlejuice."

He watched as Lydia wiped her tear stricken face. He faded into nothingness, as he reached his home he scratched his head and sighed. Fine! If she wanted him to go, he would. There'd be no use in calling for him in the future, that was it...she was finally on her own.


End file.
